Tracking Rail News

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

Starting with this edition for the first month of 2017, RailPAC introduces this new series on our blog to highlight the best rail-related stories over the last month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

That being said, here are some of the best stories selected from the RailPAC team from January 2017:

From an email sent by Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman on Jan. 4, 2017. His full email is reposted below. Only changes to the repost is the formatting, ensuring clarity when reading.

Special Employee Advisory from Wick Moorman – Organization Update

With a new year ahead of us, I want to share some initial thoughts with you about the future of our company and the actions we are taking to improve our organization.

As I’ve been learning about the company in my first three months on the job, I’ve come to see that there is a lot that is working well at Amtrak, starting with the quality of our people. I’ve also gained a deeper appreciation of the importance of our services to customers across the country. Americans want and need a strong national passenger rail service, and the hard work that all of you have put in during the past decade to modernize and improve our service, including our record performance last year, has translated into broad public support for Amtrak and our mission.

Looking ahead to 2017, it is vital for us to capitalize on this success. We have a terrific opportunity to build an even more efficient and effective company that can facilitate, organize and operate best-in-class passenger rail services throughout the United States. To do so, we need to be structured properly, and having reviewed our organization and evaluated our future needs with our Board, I believe this is the time to streamline and improve our reporting structure.

Therefore, we are pleased today to introduce a new organizational structure for Amtrak that will enable us to create greater product and customer focus, along with strengthening accountability and decision-making throughout our company. This new structure aligns with our focus to improve the way we do business, modernize and enhance the customer experience, and invest in our future. While changes to an organization are never a “silver bullet,” the right structure is a necessary first step to driving the five key objectives that we believe are critical to our long-term success:

Building a world-class safety culture with a relentless focus on training, risk-reduction, positive reinforcement and personal accountability;

To support our pursuit of these objectives, we are making the following changes:

Senior Executives

We are consolidating the senior team into six direct reports to the CEO, effective immediately. This change will streamline decision-making, increase alignment between departments, and establish clear areas of accountability.

These six groups and their respective Executive Vice Presidents are:

Operations – Scot Naparstek, Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Marketing and Business Development – Jason Molfetas, Executive Vice President

The Operations group will be reorganized to strengthen our focus on safety, service delivery, productivity and capital project execution.
The product development, planning, and contract management functions of the current Business Lines, certain customer service functions and some onboard service personnel for certain products will be transferred to the new Business Development and Product Support and Management organizations within the Marketing and Sales group. Train operations will be managed regionally through Vice Presidents of Operations and supported by Safety, Compliance and Training; Mechanical; Engineering; Network Support; Amtrak Police; and Corporate Security organizations. Additionally, certain planning and station and facility functions will be transferred to the new Planning, Technology and Public Affairs group.

All departments and functions currently within Operations will continue to report to Scot Naparstek, COO, until February 1, 2017. At that time, the following new and existing departments and functions will report directly to Scot and all previous organizations will be merged within this structure or transferred to other groups:

Department/Function/Leader

Operations, East
Michael DeCataldo, Vice President

Operations, Central
To be announced

Operations, West
Jay Commer, Vice President

Mechanical
Mario Bergeron, Chief Mechanical Officer

Engineering
Rodrigo Bitar, Chief Engineer

Safety, Compliance and Training
Dave Nichols, Vice President

Network Support
Robin McDonough, Vice President

Amtrak Police
Neil Trugman, Chief and Assistant Vice President

Corporate Security
Susan Reinertson, Assistant Vice President

Further details regarding changes within the Operations organization will be announced later this month.

Marketing and Business Development

The newly formed Marketing and Business Development group will be expanded from the current Marketing and Sales department to create greater focus on the development and management of our key products and streamlined to align this work with Amtrak’s broader marketing and branding efforts. The product development, planning, and contract management functions of the current Business Lines and customer service functions within Operations, together with certain staff from the Government Affairs and Infrastructure and Investment Development groups, will be transferred to new Business Development and Product Support and Management organizations within this group.

All departments and functions currently within the Marketing and Sales organization will continue to report to Jason Molfetas until February 1, 2017. At that time, the following new and existing departments and functions will report directly to Jason and all previous organizations will be merged within this structure:

Department/Function/Leader

Northeast Corridor Business Development
Mark Yachmetz, Vice President

State Supported Services Business Development
Joe McHugh, Vice President

Long Distance Services Business Development
Mark Murphy, Vice President

Passenger Experience
Tom Hall, Vice President

Product Support and Management
To Be Announced

Marketing
Rob Friedman, Vice President

In addition, a newly formed group for Commuter and Ancillary Services Business Development has been created, and will be led by Paul Vilter, Assistant Vice President. Paul will report to Mark Murphy.

Further details regarding changes within the Marketing and Business Development organization will be announced later this month.

Finance

The Finance department will continue to report to Jerry Sokol, CFO, with further organizational changes to come within the department over the coming months. Procurement will now report to DJ Stadtler, CAO, effective immediately.

Law

All departments and functions currently reporting to the Law Department will continue to report to Eldie Acheson, GC.

Administration

As the new Chief Administration Officer, DJ Stadtler will be responsible for a newly-named Human Resources department. The new HR department will be developed from the current Human Capital organization and led by Byl Herrmann, Vice President, effective immediately. Byl will assume this role from Barry Melnkovic, who is retiring from the company. I want to thank Barry for his years of service and dedication to Amtrak.

Further details regarding changes within the Administration organization will be announced later this month.

Planning, Technology and Public Affairs

The new Planning, Technology and Public Affairs group will bring together the network and corporate planning, infrastructure access, government affairs and corporate communications and strategy groups. It will also include fleet planning, real estate, and various station and facility management, maintenance and development functions to better coordinate the long-term development of the company’s key assets and services. In addition, IT will be integrated into this group, as it is an essential function for our current operations across the country, as well as a driver of our future success.

All departments and functions currently reporting to Stephen Gardner will continue to do so, with IT now reporting to Stephen as well, effective immediately.

On February 1, 2017, Stephen’s new organization will include the following:

Department/Function/Leader

Planning
To be announced

IT
Ghada Ijam, Chief Information Officer

Government Affairs and Corporate Communications
Caroline Decker, Vice President

Real Estate, Stations and Facilities
Bart Bush, Vice President

Further details regarding changes within the Planning, Technology and Public Affairs organization will be announced later this month.

Additionally, as part of these changes, we will simplify our titling for senior officials by adopting a three-level titling structure of Executive Vice President, Vice President and Assistant Vice President to apply to all such positions.

I understand that many of you will have questions about these changes. We will follow this announcement up with more information as it becomes available, and I’d ask for your patience, continued focus – especially on safety – and dedication to our mission as we work through this transition.

On behalf of our entire leadership team, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done so far to make Amtrak successful. You are an important part of our continued success and I’m excited for the journey ahead of us, starting with the launch of this new organization.

A well-informed source has told RailPAC that Pacific Parlour Car service will be missing from the Coast Starlight in the coming weeks because the FRA has some concerns about the glazing. Apparently one car has already been fixed and Amtrak is awaiting delivery of material for the rest of the fleet. Unfortunately we cannot offer a schedule of which dates may be affected but we’ll do our best to keep you informed.

As the Parlour Cars are cycled through the shops they will be temporarily replaced by Superliner lounge cars. We are assured there is no intent to end the service.

Report and Comments by Russ Jackson
The western long distance trains had a rough winter in the northern 2/3 of the country. Some trains were canceled altogether for several days. Here is a rundown of some of the activity by train in the past few weeks. Not everything is included, but here are some highlights, using Amtrak’s data. When April is figured in things will look much worse.

California Zephyr. 45.2% on time in March; 52.5% for the last 12 months. For several days Donner Pass was closed not only to road traffic on I-80, but also the Union Pacific main line was snowed in as drifts of over 5 feet of blowing snow blocked access. While there was diligence by the UP crews, there were several derailments. For the first time in many years the rotary plows stationed at Roseville were called into service. The old heads who remember how it was up there when snows like that were more common are mostly retired, and the youngsters have never seen snow like this before. The weather is still bad, but the route is open again so that Trains #5/6 can run their regular route. Train 5 that left Chicago on April 16 on time arrived in Emeryville 3 days later 58 minutes early. Delays to the trains now are in southern Iowa, where flooding has occurred. For some days the trains originated-terminated at Reno with passengers bused from California when I-80 finally opened. To see a great video of the rotary plows in operation, look at www.kcra.com/r-video/27364908/detail.html.

Empire Builder. 33.6% on time in March; 33.8% for the last 12 months. The Builder was the hardest hit of all the western trains. It did not run at all for many days, including the week before April 15 when it had not operated due to flooding on the BNSF in North Dakota. Before that it was winter storms, but once the snow starts to melt up in that state Amtrak’s line from Fargo to Grand Forks and west is subject to water problems. An anticipated BNSF detour line direct from Fargo to Minot had many slow orders due to high water and was declared unusable. Amtrak has discussed permanently moving #7/8 to this alternate line, but it will bypass Grand Forks, Devils Lake, and Rugby, towns that rely on the train for service. Amtrak has said it will cost $100 million in upgrades to bridges and track in the Devils Lake area if that service is to continue. The BNSF does not use that route for freight service. It would take two “construction seasons” to rebuild, after Congress appropriated the money. How likely is that to happen now?

Southwest Chief. 83.9% on time in March; 77.8% for the last 12 months. Not much to say here, as Trains #3/4 continued to depart on time and arrive early at both ends more than they were late.

Sunset Limited. 88.9% on time in March; 83.1% for the last 12 months. However, problems arose when wildfires damaged a Union Pacific bridge near Marfa, Texas on April 9, stalling the train for 18 hours. So, weather at the other extreme affected the Sunset route.

Coast Starlight. 45.2% on time in March; 65% for the last 12 months. Winter weather did have an effect on the operation of Trains #11/14, but most of the problems have come due to track work being done by the Union Pacific south of San Jose and San Luis Obispo which has required the train to be detoured and has provided railfans with several chances to ride the detour route through the San Joaquin Valley. The detour began south of Emeryville at Fremont, where the train crossed the Altamont Pass to Stockton, then traveled on the Union Pacific line (thin blue line on the map) south to Bakersfield, up the Tehachapis, across the famous Loop, through Mojave, Lancaster, Palmdale, and into Los Angeles. For a full description of one of the #11 detours that departed Oakland Jack London Square 30 minutes late and arrived at Los Angeles Union Station at 9:57 PM, see Chris Guenzler’s picture story on www.Trainweb.org. Passengers going south to the Starlight’s regular Central Coast stations rode buses from Oakland.

Whether Amtrak and its host railroads were “prepared” for this winter is ripe for speculation, but when a winter like this one happens it’s nail biting time all along the routes. We congratulate Amtrak, the BNSF, and the UP for their diligence in restoring service in a timely manner. Lessons were learned, and it will be interesting to see how prepared they all are next winter. (Maps from Railpac.org and Amtrak timetable.)

. . . Rail fans all over the country were chasing newly re-painted Amtrak P-42 locomotive 145 in February as it toured the country leading various Amtrak long distance trains. The new paint job is in Amtrak’s “heritage” colors to commemorate Amtrak’s 40 year anniversary coming up May 1. #145 visited Los Angeles Union Station on the weekend of February 20-21 in front of the Sunset Limited. Four other locomotives will be repainted in heritage colors and dispatched by Train Day.

. . . Winter. What else can we say? The past month was more weather-related problems for the Amtrak western long distance trains, and at the halfway point through the month the endpoint on time performance of the California Zephyr was at 33%, the Empire Builder was at 25%, Southwest Chief was 54%, and even the Sunset Limited was down to 50%. The Coast Starlight was hanging tough at 81%. The effect on Amtrak’s locomotive fleet’s reliability was substantial; on one day in February 46 P-42’s were out of service for use on Intercity trains. On the same date 8 California locomotives were out of service. The Pacific Northwest was hit hard, with the Empire Builder getting stuck between the switches of Glacier Park siding due to a BNSF derailment which delayed #8 upwards of ten hours while repairs were transported to the site over 70 miles away from Shelby, Montana. High winds, some up to 90 MPH were found in the area that day. Five miles north of Vancouver, Washington, a mud slide dumped debris and water on the tracks on February 12, causing cancellation of all the Cascades for two days and the Coast Starlight to terminate-originate in Portland, Oregon.

. . . The SMART train.

Historic Santa Rosa NWP station and platform.

For over ten years we have been following the ups and downs of the Sonoma-Marin commuter train project which finally received voter approval for its funding two years ago. Now, of course, the economy has hit that area the same as elsewhere in California and the project has had to retrench in its plans. It is now limited to Santa Rosa to San Rafael. Missing is the much desired 31-mile extension through the growing population areas of Windsor and Healdsburg to Cloverdale in the north, and the vital 3-mile link taking the trains to the ferry connection in Larkspur. Without those extensions the revenue base for the railroad shrinks considerably. RailPAC member John Blaubach, Santa Barbara, traveled to Santa Rosa in January and viewed the downtown Railroad Square station location. The classic NWP station building “was fully restored in the 1990’s and houses the local historical society. I had about fifteen minutes to walk through and read the exhibits, and asked whether the building will again serve as the depot for the SMART trains. No, they will build a new platform with canopies and shelters on the other side of the existing two tracks. SMART already owns that vacant lot. The old limit line from the 1960’s is still plainly visible in front of the station! Newly reconstructed grade crossings in Petaluma and in Santa Rosa are visible.” Meanwhile, SMART is preparing to advertise construction and management contracts for the revenue service which is planned for late 2014. In December they awarded a $57 million contract to Nippon Sharyo and Sumitomo to supply the 18 diesel multiple unit railcars (dmu) which will arrive starting in mid-2013.

. . . Eating at Los Angeles Union Station.

Ken Ruben at the new Subway Sandwich shop in LAUS

Earlier in February we wrote a trip report of our winter vacation trip on the Sunset Limited, and posted a photo report showing all the new eating places that have popped up in the past few months in LAUS on www.railpac.org. Our trip report appears elsewhere in this publication and will be on the website in March with photos. After posting the Los Angeles photos we received a note from RailPAC Associate Director Ken Ruben, who was at the opening of the new Subway Sandwich Shop at LAUS, and was its first customer. Ken signed his dollar bill to commemorate the event for the Subway people. Ken says he was also the second customer at the Famima store. He was at Wetzel’s Pretzels the night before they formally opened and wound up with a free pretzel!

. . . Around the West. . . . Tucson, Arizona’s modern streetcar project received its final authorization and can now spend the $63 million in TIGER grant money, which is in the bank. The 3.9 mile streetcar project is already under construction, and will connect the University of Arizona campus with downtown Tucson and other activity centers. Tucson is only the second U.S. city to order streetcar vehicles from the Clackamas, Oregon,-based United Streetcar, LLC. The order is for seven cars with delivery to be completed by 2013. Portland, Oregon, is the other buyer. . . . In Michigan, fourth quarter 2010 ridership is up 7.8% and revenue is up 14.1% on Amtrak’s Pere Marquette line from Grand Rapids to Chicago. A new $4.6 million GRR station has been funded, which in a state having severe economic problems that shows faith in passenger rail. Other Michigan trains increased in the same period. . . . The Austin, Texas Metro Red Line commuter train expanded it schedule in January with more rush-hour trips and a new station, which resulted in a 40% increase in ridership, although the service is still quite a bit lower than the 2008 startup projections.

Amtrak mobile command post at the Ft. Worth station.

. . . As for Super Bowl Sunday, when we arrived back at the Ft. Worth Intermodal station from our California trip, and #22 was on time, we found a very busy scene complete with the Amtrak Police “Command” motor home and police directing traffic to and from the Arlington “Jerryworld” site of the game. The Ft. Worth-Dallas TRE trains carried 3,200 passengers that day, rode buses 6 miles from the TRE Centerport station to the game. There were many private rail cars in the BNSF yard. . . . So Amtrak plans to order 40 Acela Express coach cars in its FY 2012 budget. Not that they will get that funding, but as RailPAC Director Jarrod Dellachiesa said, “East Coast wins again. When do we get our new Superliners?” Amtrak has a new way to get information and “share the unique experience of Amtrak train travel” with the start of the Amtrak YouTube Channel, to go along with its other “social media” initiatives Facebook and Twitter.

. . . Oh, yes, rarely does this writer take exception to anything printed in Trains magazine, but in their list of the ten “greatest” rail stations in the country, LAUS is “not the greatest” because “In the end, true greatness calls for classic Corinthian columns, not Mission Revival.” Oh, come now. LAUS is what it is because of where it is, and how many Corinthian columns can you find anywhere in California? More Eastern bias? Hummmph.

. . . Last but not least. This is the final edition of “Tracking Rail News” to appear in this publication. It’s been a long ride, over 24 years since this writer started regular contributions to the Review. My first issue as Editor of the Review was April, 1991, with Noel Braymer’s great photo of Los Angeles Union Station (above) on the cover. However, the RailPAC Board is exploring alternative means of communicating with the membership now, so this column will stand aside in order for the solutions to not be influenced by “what do we do with it?” Future stories will continue to be written and submitted to the Editor, however, so this writer will not totally disappear. In those 20 years, what is the biggest advancement in passenger rail? Just look at what is out there compared to back then! The biggest disappointment? That the Sunset Limited is still not a daily train. While it looked two years ago that it was a done deal, Amtrak’s slow moving, the collapse of the economy, and the Union Pacific’s intrancegence have left the project in such limbo it is unlikely to happen in the near future; in fact, despite the House rejecting the plan to cut Amtrak by $446.9 million by a vote of 250-176 on February 17, if the Congress gives any cuts to Amtrak that are talked about and Amtrak reacts in its usual manner those cuts will come not just from capital projects, not from administration, but from passenger service in the national long distance network rather than the Northeast Corridor. The Sunset Limited could be a total casualty of that. In the words of the Speaker of the House, “So be it.”? – RJ

Two Amtrak California trainsets at the Sacramento station powered by Amtrak P-42 locomotives.

. . . On January 10 Governor Brown introduced his proposed budget for FY 2010-11. While major reductions are in store for “everyone,” that does not apply to the state rail corridor intercity rail operations. $90,247,027 is exactly the same amount as the last three years. So, no growth in that allocation, but no cut in the funds the program receives from taxes on diesel sales. As one commentator said, “It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.” Other rail operations are not so lucky in their funding sources, however.

Caltrain is one and faces a huge cut that could leave a reduction from 86 to 48 daily trains, no weekend service, no service south of San Jose, no game-time trains to AT&T Park, and closing seven stations. Caltrain is subsidized solely by San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties. A “Save our Caltrain” group has organized, and RailPAC is supporting it. (See separate stories.) If ever there was a transportation system that works it is Caltrain, taking so many people off Highway 101 every day!

. . . December: What a month for weather on Amtrak! The country was treated to real wintry weather, some places had snow for the first time in history, the Northeast Corridor between New York and Boston was closed, and California was not spared. Here are some highlights, as of December 27: On December 22 service south of Oceanside on the Surf Line, Amtrak Pacific Surfliners and the Coaster, were canceled. Slides at Califa Beach, the San Mateo Creek and San Onofre Creek running out to sea, a mile long washout in the flood area in Sorrento Valley, and the construction bridge at the Santa Margarita River was destroyed. By the evening of December 23 service was restored by Amtrak and NCTD.

Don't you wish all parking garages had this "counter" so you would know where you can park?

We noticed when Editor Braymer used photos of the Irvine Amtrak station parking garage last month that one he didn’t use was of a “car space counter” at the entrance, which shows arriving passengers where the available parking is. That’s a helpful device, and how useful it would be in all parking garages!

Congratulations are in order to the Capitol Corridor, where there was 100% on time performance on November 29 and 30 for all 32 trains!

Western long distance train service was disrupted, particularly trains # 7/8, the Empire Builder, with both trains departing origination points on December 14 canceled, although bustitution was provided between some cities. While critics chimed in about trains being the “all weather” mode of transportation, just look at what the airlines had to do on a similar day, when 1600 flights were canceled and thousands more over Christmas Day. Amtrak said the reason for the NEC closure was not because trains couldn’t get through (although clearly many couldn’t) but because riders could not get to the stations, the same reason the NFL used to postpone its game in Philadelphia. It looked like a very logical reason. Earlier, Empire Builder #7 of 12/11 departed Seattle 1 hour and 43 minutes late, was 14 hours late at Malta, Montana, 19 hours late out of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and arrived 18 hours late into Chicago due to storms.

In California, Multiple washouts and mud slides in the Loma Linda area closed the Union Pacific on December 22 causing train # 2, the Sunset Limited, to depart Los Angeles 6 hours late, and it was 7 hours late out of Tucson the next day. Otherwise the Sunset had a good month, with train 2 of 12/17, carrying this writer’s former colleague from Palomar College, Dana Hawkes, departing LAUS 10 minutes late and arrived in Houston, his station, on time. We will take time to mention at this point there is again NO news about a daily Sunset-Eagle.

File photo: California Zephyr #5 crosses Donner Pass.

Amtrak train #5 the California Zephyr was detoured through Wyoming on December 21 because of rock slides on the UP’s Moffat Tunnel line and heavy snowfall in western Colorado. That was in addition to that train using the CNW across Iowa, where the train had UP locomotive 6698 on the point for cab signals, which reminds us of a report in this column last month about a UP locomotive on the Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited that had several problems. A railroader wrote us that there is “Lack of proper maintenance in many cases, plus it sounds like the UP hands off questionable locomotives to help out Amtrak and they gave the Eagle a ‘shopped’ unit. I bet they billed Amtrak for the full amount each time, however.” The Zephyr #6 of December 19 made it over the Sierra without a problem even though a flash flood warning was issued and Shed 10 had to be flagged. The Southwest Chief had its sensational ups and some downs, too. Train # 4 of 12/18 hit an auto 5 miles west of Lamy, NM, delaying it and companion train # 3 for several hours. No one was killed in that accident. Otherwise it was a routine month on the BNSF until train # 4 that departed Los Angeles on Christmas night arrived in Albuquerque at 10:35 AM the next day, beating the old record of 10:47. That was helped by (very) light holiday freight traffic, but shows that there is much padding in the Chief’s schedule; and at least a half hour could be taken out permanently despite the slow orders through Colorado and Kansas.

. . . Now for the Coast Starlight! By the time you receive this issue of the Review trains # 11/14 will be on a new schedule, which will last for 3 months. The Union Pacific will be doing extensive tie and steel replacement on the Coast Line between Gaviota and Guadalupe, including the sidings across Vandenberg AFB. Amtrak announced on December 15 that the Starlight’s schedule has been advanced 2 hours from January 1 to March 31. There will also be extensive track work in Oregon at the same time. Pacific Surfliner trains will be affected, too, but current morning departure times are unchanged. In order to give the UP a maximum ‘work window’ the Starlight will run two hours later, and in most cases Pacific Surfliner bustitution will occur north of Santa Barbara. Here is the schedule (for January 10) taken from Amtrak’s on line schedule:

Train 14 departs Los Angeles at 12:15 PM; arrives San Luis Obispo 5:30 PM, and gets to the Bay Area quite late around midnight, with arrival in Sacramento after 2 AM. Train 11 coming from Seattle will depart San Luis Obispo at 5:20 PM, arriving in Los Angeles at 11:00 PM. Travelers will be inconvenienced, but at least the trains were not canceled outright as has happened sometimes in the past. For that we are grateful, and we can only hope that after March 31 Amtrak and the UP will adjust the schedule to allow an earlier arrival into LAUS.

A northbound DART Green Line train at the elevated Downtown Carrollton station.

. . . From around the West. . . . The Dallas DART light rail Green Line opened its extended service in December, running from Carrollton on the northwest to Buckner on the southeast, a 24 mile distance. This highly anticipated line takes riders to Love Field (Southwest Airlines), Childrens/Parkland Hospital, downtown Dallas, the Texas State Fair grounds, and a Baylor Hospital. A very popular stop already is at the American Airlines Center for Mavericks NBA and Stars NHL games. DART is now the largest light rail system in the west. . . . The Oklahoma DOT finally reached a deal with the private owners of the Oklahoma City Santa Fe train depot, assuring that passengers on Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer continue to have access without any lockouts occuring like happened a few times when the owner locked the gates. Upgrades at the station including a ticket office will now be explored.

Amtrak locomotive 500 powered by biodiesel on the Heartland Flyer.

The Flyer was honored as one of “The 50 Best Inventions of 2010″ by TIME magazine for its use of locomotive 500, which has run since April, 2010 on a biodiesel blend that includes beef byproducts, the nation’s first test of biodiesel in an interstate passenger train. . . . Amtrak President Boardman rode the California Zephyr to Oakland and back in early December. He has been riding frequently, which is what he should be doing. He rides on the Amtrak business cars but has access to the rest of the train by having a Superliner transition car in front of his cars. He returned on the same route. . . . Historically this column has supported the return of the Desert Wind to provide rail service to Las Vegas, NV, not just from the California southland, but also from the midwest. High speed projects continue to be talked about for the LA-Vegas route, but is it realistic to expect any of them to succeed only from Los Angeles or Victorville? This month Delta Airlines announced it was boosting its network by adding B737 nonstop flights between Las Vegas and Orange County beginning this month. . . . We close this month with a quote from Kevin Sherrington’s sports column in the December 19 Dallas Morning News. “What Kristin Lee liked about Philadelphia: food, fun, ‘cultural experiences.’ What Cliff’s wife didn’t like about Texas (where he pitched for the Texas Rangers last season): summer heat and traffic to the Ballpark.” Kevin commented, and we agree, “Can’t fix the heat, but if the Ballpark sat next to the Farmers Market (in downtown Dallas near the Green Line) traffic would be a non-issue. As it is, the Ballpark/JerryWorld should be a stop on a rail line.” Arlington, Texas is the largest city without any public transportation because voters would not approve it. ###

One of our classic photos is the westbound California Zephyr #5 at Winter Park, Colorado in the winter of 2000.

The Thanksgiving weekend saw the start of Amtrak’s annual battle with winter weather, and nowhere was it more evident than along the route of the Empire Builder. Train #8 (22) departed Seattle 3 hours and 20 minutes late and finally arrived in Chicago 3 days later, 20 hours and 8 minutes late due to storm conditions across Montana and North Dakota. Along its route it went from just under 7 hours late at Cutbank, MT, to 13 hours late out of Havre. The California Zephyr #5 (22) departed Chicago 3 minutes late, and was only 54 minutes late out of Salt Lake City, ended up 4 hours and 24 minutes late into Emeryville after losing almost 2 hours between Truckee and Colfax. Coast Starlight #11 that departed Seattle on the same day 1 hour and 43 minutes late was 4 hours late out of Tacoma due to mechanical problems, not the weather, but #14 that departed Los Angeles on time that day and was 23 minutes late into Dunsmuir ran into the Cascades winter weather and was 2 hours and 40 minutes late out of Klamath Falls. Meanwhile, the Sunset Limited and the Southwest Chief continued their pattern of excellent on time performance, arriving early at their endpoints consistently.

. . . However, the overall picture of on time performance for FY10 is not bad. The California Zephyr ended up OT 52.6% for the year, down 7.1% from 09. The Coast Starlight was 89.9%, up 7.4%; the Empire Builder was 77.8%, up 2.2%; the Southwest Chief was 79.1%, down 6%; the Sunset Limited was 87.5%, up 8.3%!

. . . Let’s look at some of the “routine” problems encountered by long distance trains last month. Train 3 (13) was delayed over 2 hours at Peach Springs, AZ, because it set off a drag detector due to a broken strut and sheared bolt on a coach. The BNSF was able to help that one. Train 11 (13) was delayed departing Seattle for 95 minutes because inspection revealed a faulty toilet vacuum pump in a Sleeping car. (Where have we heard that problem over and over before? At least it was corrected prior to departure.) Train 6 (12) was delayed 45 minutes 35 miles east of Green River, UT due to a locomotive “not loading.” (Another regular problem.) Train 21 (11) the Texas Eagle, was delayed 2 1/2 hours near San Antonio due to “losing traction power” on locomotive 81. The Union Pacific provided a helper locomotive. But, the train was delayed 3 hours more at San Antonio “swapping locomotives”, due to a horn problem on the freight locomotive and toilet problems on train 22. Then Train 1 was delayed another 2 hours at Deming, NM removing that freight locomotive because it had “bell and whistle problems and lateral motion.” Another freight locomotive was taken off an eastbound freight train and the Sunset continued to Los Angeles. And, Train 4 (13) was delayed over 2 hours at Albuquerque as a result of having to switch the rear car and another coach on the rear of the train due to bad ordered marker lights. It takes much patience to run a railroad, particularly when many problems can be prevented but are not.

. . . Thanksgiving weekend was sold out on Amtrak! On Wednesday, November 24, one of the busiest travel days of the year, NBC TV stationed one of their top reporters, Mike Taibbi, at New York’s Penn Station and through the day he provided information to all of their networks, the Today Show, MSNBC, CNBC, and the Weather Channel. There was parity for rail travelers with air and highways at last! Mr. Taibbi reported after interviewing train riders that with the controversial TSA “patdown” procedures in effect at airports there was definitely more interest in rail traffic. He went on to say that since all trains were full a reservation was a must, that Amtrak had every available car running, and was serving turkey in its long distance train dining cars. That summed things up rather nicely! Elsewhere that day, the Capitol Corridor added cars to its consists, some with 7 cars, and borrowed a set of Caltrain equipment (Gallery cars), running that consist on trains 542 and 553 with limited snack service! Some Surfliner consists had 9 cars, and there were 5 cars including the Great Dome on the low level train to San Luis Obispo. While it is difficult to pinpoint how many travelers took Amtrak rather than flying this year, a New Orleans TV station, WWL, interviewed four passengers waiting to board a full Sunset Limited and the result was mixed. Amtrak spokesman Todd Stennis told the station, “I think that (those TSA screenings) played a role” in a jump in ridership.

. . . More on the weather and other things. . . . Did you see the excellent article in the December issue of Trains magazine about snow removal on Donner Pass? It says, “When the rotaries (plows) move out of Roseville, (enroute to the Sierra) workers have to pull up crossings and remove the Amtrak station platforms at Rocklin and Colfax to accommodate the plows. The platforms were designed to be portable because of this.” We didn’t know this, so we asked our Sierra correspondent, Ralph James (who is busy shoveling out his property these days), who says, “Colfax would only have one platform on the #2 track but Rocklin would have a platform on each track. With CTC cross-overs at Rocklin, Newcastle, Bowman and Colfax (west of the platform and in the wrong direction to avoid the platform) it would be possible to get by with removing only one platform in Rocklin.” Isn’t railroading interesting? . . . A new $7 million crossover at the West end of the Yolo Causeway was one of California’s federally funded projects. Construction should begin soon to increase efficiency between Davis and Sacramento. CCJPA Managing Director, David Kutrosky, says they are still in negotiations with the UP. That leads this writer to finally in this issue report that negotiations with the UP on the daily service for the Texas Eagle-Sunset Limited are still going on, as best as we can determine, but no decision. As the agent in the Austin, Texas station told us last month “you probably know more than we do.” . . . The Union Pacific has “re-ignited” its double-tracking effort on its 760 mile El Paso to Los Angeles Sunset Route, putting in $18 million to complete nine miles in Imperial County, California and another nine miles in Maricopa County, Arizona. It just gets easier to operate the Sunset Limited daily. . . . The American Society of Civil Engineers recognized the rehabilitation of the Cal Park Tunnel between San Rafael and Larkspur on the future route of the SMART trains as the “Outstanding Small Project of 2010″, and we extend congratulations! The tunnel has been rebuilt and now contains a bicycle-pedestrian pathway, so when construction of the rail line commences the tunnel is ready. After reading RailPAC Secretary Dick Spotswood’s article about the future of the SMART project that tunnel may wait a while before it sees trains. . . . Congratulations are in order, too, to Metrolink’s SCRRA Board for unanimously agreeing to buy 20 more train cars from Hyundai Rotem for $1.68 million each, about $1 million below market value! Now, if Metrolink can come up with money like that why has it taken so many agonizing years for Amtrak to come up with the cash for any new western long distance cars? Where there is a will there is a way. . . . All that’s left now is to wish our reader/members a Happy Christmas Holiday! See you on the rails next year!

About Us

Our Mission is to promote the development of a modern, sustainable, environmentally friendly passenger rail system through education of the public and government officials.
Our Vision is a comprehensive rail network of long distance, intercity, and regional trains, supported by and integrated with local transit, bicycle access, and pedestrian friendly stations.
We accomplish these objectives via print publications, electronic media, testimony at government hearings, direct contact with elected and agency officials and conferences.